Road to Royalty
by The Clown King Of Chaos
Summary: Rhaegar has been left a grim legacy by his big brother Cyrus. Only one option becomes clear to him: outrun his family reputation by returning to every region and once again defeating the Champions. The road will be rough, but he will not have to walk it alone...


_**A/N: **_**This... is my magnum opus. A very, very long journey that will scale all of the regions. The journey of my OC, Rhaegar. Anyone who even remotely knows me knows that _A Song of Ice and Fire_ is my absolute favorite novel series, so that's where the name comes from. This tale is also a clash story with my good friend, The 19th Angel. His is called _A Champion's Journey._ Go read it. It rules.**

**I would also like to thank my beta DaOneInDaCorner, who also wants a clash story here as well. We three are currently discussing it.**

**XXXXXX The near future. Let's say... about a year or two. XXXXXX**

The rain came down lightly onto his face. It felt slightly cold, but refreshing. He could feel his blue hair, which was so long it covered the small of his back, absorbing the liquid. He was facing the sky with his eyes closed. He didn't need to see the water fall from the heavens, only feel them land on and caress his pale face. He was sitting down on a grassy hill, miles away from the nearest civilization.

He spread his arms out to the side and looked to the gentle grey sky. He felt the cool water running down him. "Can you feel it? The soothing rhythm of the rain? Is it not beautiful?"

His nemesis Grey replied "some people feel the rain, others just get wet" with a casual shrug.

Rhaegar chuckled condescendingly, and lowered his head so he could look his nemesis in the eyes. Rhaegar liked that side of his rival, who also was his friend in his view. That blunt, right-to-the-issue attitude...

Rhaegar lowered his arms to his sides, one hand coming to rest on his Houndoom's back. "Small wonder why you call yourself Grey. What with that attitude and narrow-mindedness. Lemme guess... you were the runt of your litter?"

"Only child. Never in anyone's shadow. Which thankfully never gave me an inferiority complex to a scumbag sibling."

A dangerous smile crossed Rhaegar's lips. He stood up. "Are you talking about...?"

"I'm talking about your brother, yes. My father may have been evil but at least he was good at it." Grey said as he released the Black Haxorus named Enoch, who turned and leashed a mighty roar at his challenger

"Ha." Rhaegar pulled out a Pokeball from his trenchcoat's pocket, and out of it came the Salamence that served as what people commonly called his 'ace Pokemon.' Temporarily losing focus on his intimidate situation, he again raised his arms and looked towards the heavens. "Hey there, big bro. I can hear you. Just... a little longer now."

"Hmm, well at least you can pat yourself on the back for being the first crazy person to reach me," Grey said. He didn't sound mocking or anything belittling at all.

"Crazy?!" Rhaegar said with incredulous tones. This was quickly replaced by his familiar tired and smug smile. "Why so serious? This, our greatest obstacle, is supposed to be fun, and yet you are like a rock."

"You aren't my greatest obstacle, just the latest."

"Oh really? I have toppled every challenger I have come across, except one. I have the strongest team of Pokemon you will ever see. I have the capabilities to bring this world to its knees! AND, if I had taken the actual titles, I'd be a Champion four times over!"

"I've done it five times. Lance, Wallace, Steven, Cynthia, and Alder. I have toppled Team Rocket single-handed. I was instrumental in toppling Aqua, Magma, Cipher, Plasma... and Galactic."

"You had NOTHING to do with us!" Rhaegar said in retaliation to the lie.

"Really, you think that bimbo Cynthia did it all by herself? Cynthia's a great trainer but an average detective. Besides she never would've known about Dialga and Palkia without me."

"You're... beginning to irritate me, kid." It was true. How could Grey be so calm whilst bragging about such feats overcome?

"I tend to do that." Grey replied. "Now quit stalling! I have a lunch appointment in ten minutes which means if we start now I should be there with eight minutes to spare."

"One more thing. What do you see here?" Rhaegar lifted his arm, the one with the Red Chain wrapped around his wrist and forearm.

"I see the fake red chain made from meteorites just as I see the real one made from meteorites and I see the one made from the gems of Uxie, Mesprit, Azelf the lake guardians, right... here." Grey said as he removed his belt. It slowly began to change shape, and in a matter of seconds, he was holding the original Red Chain.

"Y-you..." Rhaegar began to shake. That Chain was rightfully his. "You little... Give me that. Give me that RIGHT NOW!"

"How about no? Cynthia had to turn it over after the board and I agreed the spear pillar incident was too close for comfort." Grey said as his eyes flashed bright blue, and the chain in Rhaegar's hands shattered.

Rhaegar looked at his now chain-less forearm, mouth agape but no words escaping. Suddenly, he mouth closed and twisted as he dropped to he knees. He planted he open hands on the wet earth. Without him realizing, laughter began to fill the air. His own laughter. His uncontrollable cackling echoed in the thunder.

"Get up," Grey said, "or my Nidoking will bury you so far underground Groudon will be unable to find you."

That statement pierced Rhaegar, striking him full of fear. "Fine!" Rhaegar hoisted himself up back into a standing posture. "Keep the chain. I don't need it anymore. It would have made a nice memento, but I have something better back home. Something far more useful..."

"Yes, a wife who loves you." Grey said with a hint of jealousy. "Whether or not you beat me she will still love you. I cannot tell you what I'd give to have that. Now are we gonna do this or not?"

"While I do have a wife, whom I love and EARNED, I am not referring to her for once. I'm talking about your freaky friend's father, or at least, something of his."

"It matters not, you're avoiding the matter at hand."

"The point is, if I had that damnably amazing cane on me, your Haxorus would crush you. But still, I don't need it. Your just another little punk standing in my way... Salamence! Dragon Breath!"

**XXXXXX Present Day XXXXXX**

Rhaegar, of Sunyshore City, was enjoying the sites of Driftveil city. He had just defeated the city's Gym Leader, Clay. It had been a close battle, but victory went to Rhaegar nonetheless. He wanted to take it all in until he had to do something he really was not looking forward to doing.

After their battle, Clay had told him the next city with a Gym was only accessible by going through Chargestone Cave. Rhaegar hated that fact. He hated caves. Or more accurately, he hated enclosed areas due to severe claustrophobia. That trait of course made his battle with Clay very uncomfortable.

He had since been sitting in the shade beneath a tree with his most loyal, and one of his favorite Pokemon; the Houndoom he had raised from an egg himself which he sometimes affectionately called 'Scorch.'

He looked at the other people walking past him and minding their own business, engulfed in their own lives. Rhaegar wasn't surprised. He had a talent with appearing out of nowhere and somehow blending in with his surroundings. He had perfected that skill as a boy, wanting to watch his older brother work on his mechanical projects but not wanting to disturb him.

Rhaegar watched them, all of different statures, ages, everything. Children ran around laughing as their parents watched with smiles across their lips. Young lovers held hands and walked in step. Seeing these made a smile cross Cyrus's brother's own veneer. As he patted Scorch's head, he maintained that smile as he said: "There's too many people in the world, Scorch. We need a plague or something..."

"Rhaegar," said a very familiar voice which seemed to come from everywhere and even echo slightly. It was very formal, nearly emotionless, and just a little curt. Rhaegar knew that voice all too well. Rhaegar pushed himself up into a standing position and looked to his side. There was his brother with his blank and hardened face. He stood in a routine stance; his arms were behind his back which was stiff as a board, and his feet were shoulder-length apart. Rhaegar was ever so happy to see his brother, who seemed to drop by randomly at completely inconstant intervals. He also seemed to know exactly where his kid brother was. But what really set Rhaegar's curiosity was that Cyrus seemed to be half-transparent nowadays

"Guess we better get a move-on, Scotch," he said as he brushed whatever had gotten stuck in his almost ridiculously long hair, which was the same color his older brother's had been. It went down to his haunch and was unkempt as if he never bothered to comb it. After clearing out the leaves and grass from his hair, his innately rubbed the thick hair that was his soul-patch, as he always did when he was nervous. He took in a deep breath and stepped out of the shade and into the bright sunlight. He really did not like this time of day, he much preferred to travel beneath the moon, but he had wasted enough time. He wanted to achieve his dreams while he was still in his prime youth. That dream would be a difficult one to achieve. Nothing like that stopped him before, though. Suddenly he remembered his brother, whom he had always unconditionally loved, was there with him. Rhaegar looked back to where Cyrus had been standing, but found that he was gone. Being used to this, Rhaegar shrugged it off. He took in a big breath, preparing to go into a realm he really did not enjoy entering.

**XXXXXX Several Hours Later XXXXXX**

If one stood outside the entrance to Chargestone Cave, specifically the one just outside of Mistralton City, things would not appear all that out of the ordinary. However, if they had been standing there on this particular day around sunset, something would have caught their ears. It would have been extremely faint at first, but gradually gaining volume, like a train coming down a deep tunnel. Given a few moments, they would have deduced that it wasn't a train engine, but rather screaming. If that didn't manage to make them either uncomfortable or disturbed enough to leave, they would have had to wait a good minute until the source of the screaming revealed itself. Had they done that waiting, they would have seen a young man, perhaps in his early twenties, literally throw himself out of the darkness and into the grass beneath the now orange sky, and right behind him would have been a Houndoom. Had the bystander taken time to observe the man, they would have seen he was fairly tall and wiry, and would have most likely surmised that he was from America or at least had spent time there; he wore black cowboy boots with spurs still attached, somewhat tattered black jeans, fingerless black leather gloves, and a solid black tee-shirt. The only things that stood out (wasn't black) of his attire was a red chain that wrapped around his left hand and forearm; it didn't have a lock, yet it stayed fastened to him. His other signifigant piece of attire was his his trench coat; it was white-silver and shined quite like a beautiful gem when caught in the correct light. Even more eye-catching was the 'G' on the back. It looked futuristic in its own way and was a brilliant yellow.

**XXXXXX**

Rhaegar groaned as he lay there, face-first in the ground as the evening sun shined upon his back. He could hear his Houndoom's soft panting from close beside him. He pushed himself up.

"I hate those things," he said. He looked and saw that nobody was around, but he did see Mistralton City not that far ahead, and then his sight caught a large grey building that just had to be the city's Gym, what with the large insignia on the upper wall. He hoisted himself up into a standing position and dusted himself off. The walk to the Gym was silent. He never saw much point in talking if nobody was around to hear you. Why waste your precious breath? When he finally did arrive to the Gym, he noticed for the first time that a runway was leading up to it.

"Huh, is this... is this a hangar?" Rhaegar asked outloud, to no one in particular. His answer came in a non-verbal way. He heard a somewhat horrid sound, metal scraping against metal, on the adjacent side of the building. He took a few steps to his left and saw two huge doors sliding apart, revealing a way into what he was now convinced was both an airplane hangar and a Gym. After the horrible scraping finally stopped, he heard a new sound to his left, like a loud whirring. He turned his head and saw a biplane coming down for landing, which it did so smoothly.

He watched it disappear into the hangar, and looked down to Scorch with a very confused veneer. Letting his confusion go, he simply shrugged and walked towards the doors as Scorch followed. He ended up in the exact middle of the doorway and was surprised by what he saw; it was indeed an airplane hangar, housing numerous planes of various types. He could still hear the now dying engine of the one he had just witnessed enter, and he could see someone climbing out of it.

"Uh, hey!" He called out, an awkward tone to his voice. He and Scorch began making their way in. He heard his two words echo, and his inner child had a very sudden and powerful urge to scream out "HELLO!" for no reason other than to make the echo of it as audible as possible, but his fear of appearing idiotic and immature, thus making it impossible to be taken seriously, held him back.

Skyla climbed out of her favorite plane and landed on her feet. She had heard a man shout out "Hey!" from the doors and he was now approaching. She was very tempted to let out a sigh. She was not in the mood for another Air Battle today. She really wanted to get in one more flight that evening after dinner. She turned to inspect her aircraft as she started to respond to him.

"I'm sorry, but I'm not in the…" She turned to look at her somewhat unwelcome visitor, and her breath stopped in her throat. The man and his Houndoom had gotten close enough to her, about ten or eleven feet, that he had stopped, and she was instantly enthralled by him. His clothes were a little unorthodox, and he desperately needed a haircut. However, he was tall and lean, and his face…

Rhaegar barely had time to look at the Leader's face, but her voice made it obvious it was a girl, before she looked at him, stopped speaking whatever was on her mind, and she seemed to move in a blur. It was barely a blink when he saw nothing but her face in front of his, smiling brightly. He yelped and jumped back in surprise. The Leader's smile didn't waver. They stood there, looking at each other. His eyes observed her entirely. His male instincts could not help but notice how… tight her outfit was. Not letting those thoughts cloud him, he shook his head fervently and his stone grey eyes met her blue ones again. She was still smiling at him. He gave her one of his own, though it was somewhat forced and had obvious traces of confusion in it.

"Hi!" she said with an extremely perky voice. "I'm Skyla, Leader of the Mistralton gym."

"I'm, uh, I'm Rh-Rhaegar," he responded, still trying to regather his bearings. He moved his left arm so that it rested on his completely loyal Houndoom's back. "And this is Scorch."

"Rhaegar? That's an interesting name."

"Yeah, most can't pronounce it. 'Rhae' is like 'ray of sunlight' and the gar is like... 'garbage.'" He rubbed his temples wiuth his left hand's thumb and index finger. "I have _got _to think of a new comparison word for that..."

"So I guess you're here for a battle?" Skyla asked in the same upbeat voice. She ws beginning to make him uncomfortable.

"Uuuummm... yeah?" Rhaegar had always been uncomfortable around the opposite gender, except on three occasions in which he had miraculously managed to create a stable relationship. His parents had not been around a lot to educate him on intimacy, and his brother had never held much interest in the matter to tell him much about it either.

"Awesome!" Without warning, she grabbed him by his free arm and practically hauled him off his feet back outside the building into the setting orange sunlight. She released her grip on him and continued to walk forward until a decent battling space was between the two humans. She turned on her heels and faced him with that smile still across her lips. Rhaegar had to squint because the sun was right behind her and thus was shining directly on his face.

Skyla went on to provide introductions for her Pokemon, but Rhaegar did not bother listening to the monolouge. He was too busy planning his strategy. He saw that Skyla evidently specialized in Flying types. He could hear that she was also giving each of her Pokemon introductions, but he did not bother actually listening to her. He was too busy strategizing, making his attack plan. She had a Swoobat, a Swanna, and a male Unfezant. Perfect. People called Rhaegar what they would, but none of them, especially his past opponents, could deny he had an almost otherworldly sense of strategy. He knew that type-advantage wasn't everything, but it help in tipping the scales more often than not.

He was so enticed with his plans for victory that he did not register that all three of said Pokemon were present. That was unusual for him. In his experience, Gym Leaders usually only revealed one of their Pokemon at a time to maintain the element of surprise.

Rhaegar looked at her blankly. This was, to him, slightly asinine, but he just decided to roll with it. He considered putting Scorch in the battle due to his Thunder Fang, but the Swanna could spell trouble for him. Rhaegar picked the three Pokeballs of his choice for this so-called "Air Battle" and tossed them into the air, thus making the familiar red lightning shoot out each of them, releasing the Pokémon's within. Standing before him was one of his brother's own Pokemon, a Magnezone. He had yet to give it a nickname. The other two were his own; an Aegislash he had raised from a Honedge from his time in Kalos and had nicknamed Widowmaker, and a Zweilous, nicknamed Droog, which he had raised as a Deino he bought from a trainer Rhaegar could tell had been somewhat narrow-minded. Rhaegar had this gut feeling that this battle that was about to go underway was just the push Droog needed to evolve into the fierce Hydreigon. He couldn't help but smile slyly at that thought. In his mind's eye, he saw himself riding on the back of his three-headed dragon, crushing every opponent into the ground. His smile went from sly to dreamy. Something made him come back to reality and he again shook his head frantically, focus returning to him.

Excitement began to fill him. Rhaegar always loved battles, the rush of it all just got him rolling. Unfortunately that rush would not come to him this Battle. His adrenaline drained as he looked at his adversary, who had her eyes closed and appeared to be thinking very hard on something. With every passing moment, he slowly lost hope and interest. Finally, just as he was about to hunker down on the ground, Skyla apparently came back to reality. That discomforting smile still on her face, she accosted Rhaegar and presented him with a badge.

"Congratz, Rhae."

Rhaegar felt a surge go through him. He was used to only Malva calling him that. He shook it off and listened to Skyla finish her highly confusing congratulations for him. "I would like to give to you the Jet Badge for your victory." He looked down and took the Badge from her and looked at it closely. It resembled a bright blue wing outlined by gold. He allowed a satisfied sigh to escape his throat. He reached into the innards of his trench-coat and into the case resting in the inner pocket. He pulled it out and, with a wave of the wrist, had it open. In it were his other five badges of Unova. He laughed silently with his lips closed as he placed the Jet Badge in its respective place. The depression in the fabric was made to perfectly house it. He gazed at the six symbols of conquest and smiled. He snapped it shut. "All is going on the right course..." He would have laughed, but he had that feeling... that strange feeling one gets when they feel as if another is staring at them. He willed his eyes to turn to the side. Skyla had since recalled her Pokemon and was again smiling at him. He then decided to get the hell out of there. He recalled his own Pokemon and placed the case back in his coat's pocket.

"Well, this was fun, but I gotta go." He spoke with words going a mile a minute.

"Oh I get it. Are you heading for the Pokemon World Tournament?" Skyla asked.

That caught Rhaegar's attention. "World Tournament?" He echoed. That sounded like something he could prove his strength at. The inferiority complex his brother's legacy left him made him feel a constant need to be regarded above others.

"Yeah, it's not that far. Only back in Driftveil," Skyla answered.

Rather than let the fear show on his face, Rhaegar thanked her as sincerely as he could in such a curt tone and ran off back towards the cave entrance with Scorch right on his heels.

"Why must I continuously venture to places I hate?" Rhaegar asked nobody in particular as he and his Houndoom lied down on a hill beneath a tree, safe in the shade. He let out a sigh and remembered some of the words his brother had once told him. 'Life always throws obstacles your way, so you must overcome all of them.'

Rhaegar pondered on his life at the moment, and began a monologue of sorts. "This day has got me thinking Scorch. Perhaps after we crush this region's champion, we go back to Kalos... After all, there's nothing left to go to back in Sunyshore, or any of Sinnoh for that matter. I do believe I'll reconcile with Malva... I wonder what she's up to nowadays? Heh heh... y'know, that's a very good idea. After all, what are the chances of me dating another woman involved with a villainous a Team and thus getting involved with two nefarious plots to kill everybody in this world?" He began laughing to himself. However, this laughter died down moments later. He furrowed one brow and raised the other, and he asked himself: "Why am I laughing at attempted mass genocide?"

**XXXXXX**

**A/N: This installment was originally only half as long as its finalized version. This is going to be that one tale I don't rush on. Also, this has been in the works for months, but i just couldn't finish it for some reason... but here it is. I'm not sure exactly when mine and 19th's will intertwine, but I think it will be fairly soon.**

**Rhaegar's overall disposition was made to counteract his soon-to-be rival, Grey. I simply want him to come off as... I don't wanna say desperate or pathetic... Je ne sais. His appearance was mainly inspired by the Grim Reapers of Kuroshitsuji, namely Undertaker.**

**Also, just to set the record straight, that ain't the ghost of Cyrus Rhaegar sees. It's a hallucination brought on by grief, loneliness, and possibly mild dementia.**


End file.
